The titular leader of Little Charlie and the Nightcats is
guitarist Charlie Baty, whose light touch and lexicon of licks owe
jazz and Western swing as much as they do sweet home Chicago. The
concept master, however, is front man Rick Estrin, who sings, does
saxophone impressions on harmonica, and writes songs that are still
gaining pizzazz 20 years after he and Baty joined up. The
Nightcats' sixth and strongest album for Alligator, Straight Up!,
will startle cynics convinced the white blues circuit is a refuge
for know-nothings. On wise-ass novelties like You Gonna Lie and Me
and My Big Mouth, Estrin's neoclassicist street smarts recall
Willie Dixon and Leiber & Stoller. And on sharp-swinging workouts
like I Could Deal With It and the witty instrumental Gerontology,
this California boogie band rocks the house as if Louis Jordan were
still on the hit parade.

I'm not going to claim the other great Memphis label is the
equal of Stax-Volt. But I'll swear on a stack of barbecued ribs
that Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years will give
you more bang per
disc than any of Stax's monster singles compendiums. True, 14 of
the 66 tracks on this three-CD set are by Al Green, which may prove
irritating when the supernal soul man gets his Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame box. But over house producer Willie Mitchell's fat, sweet,
jazz-inflected bottom, mortal singers like Ann Peebles Syl Johnson,
Otis Clay, and O.V. Wright recorded music that deserved far better
than the bottom of the black music charts. And now, finally, you
can give them their propers.

Cute and shiny, its long nails red, Sleeper's Smart (Arista)
is girlpop at its lustiest. When Louise Wener says Delicious, you
hope her love bites don't draw too much blood. But you'll probably
risk it.